Seven Days
by thesimplyuninspired
Summary: Kataang Week. Day 4, Butterflies: "In a flash of color, something new enters..." Kataang drabbles
1. Umbrella

_**Seven Days  
**blue-eyes2014_

_**Summary  
**_It's Kataang week. Seven days; seven prompts; seven ways to love.

**Disclaimer  
**_Avatar: The Last Airbender_ and all related characters are copyrighted to Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko.**  
**

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**Prompt:** Umbrella**  
Rating:** K**  
Characters/Pairing:** Aang/Katara, some Gyatso, brief mention of Kya**  
Summary:** An otherwise unimportant moment in the rain on a busy sidewalk.**  
A/N:** First. Avatar fic. Ever. And it's horrifically short; I'm sorry. -sob-

.1.

The first time Aang saw her, it was her umbrella that caught his eye.

He was five, out running an errand with Gyatso, and it was raining heavily, casting a dark gloom on the day. One hand grasping his guardian's while the other clutched an orange umbrella, a mist rose off the pavement, causing the figures around him to become nothing more than shadows, ghosts. With so much gray, it was inevitable that the umbrella would draw his gaze when he and Gyatso stopped to wait for the traffic signal.

It was bright pink with a motif of white flowers, a flash of color in a gloomy world, and as he studied it, his eyes found the girl who was holding it. She was facing away from him, dressed in a blue raincoat and yellow galoshes, brown hair falling down her back. When she turned around, the movement revealed a naturally tan face and big blue eyes (could eyes be so blue?) which quietly watched the moving crowd. Then her wandering eyes met Aang's gray ones.

For the briefest moment, neither child reacted, opting to simply stare at each other in the quiet moment. Then the girl smiled, and gave Aang a small wave. Aang returned it with a tiny, shy smile of his own as he briefly relinquished his grip on Gyatso's hand to wave back.

The girl's smile became a grin, and a woman Aang could only assume was the girl's mother walked up to her, saying things the boy could not hear. Almost at the same time, the signal changed, and Gyatso began to cross, simultaneously giving Aang a small tug which brought him back to the present. When he glanced back, he was just in time to connect eyes with the girl before she disappeared into the crowd.

...

During his life, Aang's friends would call him silly, admiring Katara's umbrellas, but even so...

He could never forget that his first glimpse of his best friend, his beloved, had resulted because of one.


	2. Smoke and Mirrors

**Prompt:** Smoke and Mirrors**  
Rating:** K plus (Maybe T) for one little thing concerning lightning…**  
Characters/Pairings:** Aang/Katara, briefest implication of Zuko/Mai, Zuko/Katara friendship**  
Summary:** The lies one tells themselves, and how they come crashing down.**  
A/N:** The prompt was "Smoke and Mirrors"…and I had no idea what to do. Then I realized that the term "Smoke and Mirrors" alluded to distorting facts, and Monday night (or was it Tuesday morning? XD) I got this idea, and wrote the whole thing in…maybe…an hour? Whatever. (Heh, changing perspectives… Third-person regularly, with some second-person (at least, I think so…haven't used those terms in so-o-o-o long…))  
Shout-out to my three reviewers! You guys rock!

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"_He's not my boyfriend!"_

She had been perfectly honest when she said those words to Sokka on that fateful day. Back then, Aang was a total stranger, a carefree, fun-loving twelve-year-old with whom she had immediately bonded.

A twelve-year-old who turned out to be the Avatar.

But he was still a child. And just a friend. She did not entertain thoughts of when he was older, did not even _think_ that maybe, just maybe, the destiny that brought them together had more in mind for them. He was a kid, two years younger than her, and a good friend. Nothing more.

_But then Aunt Wu predicted you would marry a powerful bender, and you realized: Who was more powerful than the Avatar?_

She tried to dismiss it. So he was a powerful bender; so what? There were plenty of powerful benders in the world. And besides, she was _fourteen_! She had a whole lifetime ahead of her, to meet someone, to fall in love…

And anyway, she was happy with where she was in her relationship with Aang. He was a great friend, someone who gave her a reason to laugh for the sake of laughing, to believe, to _hope_. His bright smile seemed to light up everything, make it all better (if only for a moment.)

…And she almost kissed him in a cave. But that didn't mean anything, right? It was a desperate situation. So what if she was nervous about it? She was going to kiss her best friend and make things awkward between them. So what if it hurt when he said he didn't want to kiss her? So what if her heart had slipped into her throat when they leaned in and the light went out and she felt his breath on her lips, teasing, tempting… She was desperate, and he was just her friend…right?

_And then the unthinkable, the __**unimaginable**__, occurred at Ba Sing Se: you saw the Avatar fall, and you yourself almost died, but that didn't matter, not while you held his lifeless body in your arms, when you had (almost) lost him…_

She had realized, somewhere deep inside her (shattering) heart, as she watched him fall. She had known, if only very briefly, that Aang was so much more to her than a friend, a brother…so much more…

Aang couldn't die. Aang just _couldn't_ die. That was the one thing that could never, _ever_, under _no condition_, happen. But he did. For just a little while, Aang had been dead. (Only this time, she'd had just the thing to bring him back; this time, she would not lose someone she loved…)

For a time, as she sat at his bedside and clutched his hand in hers, she tried to convince herself: She did _not_ feel that way about Aang. She had just seen her best friend die; why shouldn't she be upset? She still didn't know if she had done enough to save him, if he was coming back to her…

But as time passed, the argument crumbled, and she became very aware that her feelings toward the airbender were much, _much_ stronger than she had previously believed…

Because she realized that the space Aang left when he was gone made the world empty and bleak; and that when he danced with her, she felt like _herself_ for once, reveled in the feelings he was provoking in her, and forgot about war, about grief, about betrayal, about heartbreak…

And it was frightening. It frightened her to be _this close_, so _very close_ to her best friend, to someone who had to save the world, to _the Avatar_...to _**Aang**_.

It frightened her, because he had (accidentally) broken her heart before, and yet she could not stop loving him, and she was so scared that a repeat was on the horizon… Not because he would die (not again, _never_, _ever_ again,) but because he could not possibly feel that way about her...

_And then, swiftly, desperate, he captured your lips with his, and once again you let go, and kissed him back…_

And it did not solve anything.

Because now she was in love with her best friend…who loved her back. And while on the surface it seemed like there was no problem, underneath there was so, _so much_.

Because her best friend was the Avatar, and had a duty to the world, and would eventually have to face the most dangerous man on the planet…and may not come back. The thought of such a possibility destroyed her, but it was a possibility none-the-less…and could she handle it? (No, no she couldn't; not again. It would destroy her, because there was no magic water to save him, not this time; this time, it would be forever…) And she could die as well, and- could she put him through that? Put him through such heartbreak?

So she said she was confused. And Aang, desperate once more, placed his lips on hers; but this time she did not let go, did not revel, did not give in to her pounding heart and aching soul, and tore away, and ran.

It would be better, she decided; the pain would be more bearable if they had not started something they could not finish.

_But then the lightning came, straight for you, leaping and crackling and demanding your life, and in the blue, that dazzling blue, you found refuge in gray…_

In those brief, terrifying moments, when the world stopped and Zuko was not between her and death, she wondered (not for the first time that day) how she could have let Aang leave, let him think that she did not love him? How could she have thought that this would be better? _How could she have not told him?_

But then Zuko took the hit, and (for a moment) she could not remember if it was Zuko or Aang that was writhing in midair, lightning dancing through his body, _dying_.

But she saved Zuko's life (because they were friends now, and neither of them wanted the other to die,) and they thanked each other: because between the two of them, they had been given second chances to set things right between their beloveds...

And when she saw Aang (gloriously, wonderfully _alive_,) all the lies she'd told herself, all the barriers that lingered, all of them slipped away, and she loved him so much she wasn't certain she could hold it in.

_So you kissed him, and this time there was no desperation, no impending death or destruction on the horizon: just the two of you, and love, and a joy so complete, you never, ever wanted it to end._

_And the truth was so much better than any lie you'd told yourself before._


	3. Heartbeat

**Prompt:** Hearbeat**  
Rating:** K**  
Summary:** It's a frightening, beautiful thing…**  
A/N:** Well. This was way too hard to write. And probably really, really bad. I mean, it- I- there are no words to describe how hard this was. Just...ugh...

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It was strange, how a heartbeat could change everything.

It was a heartbeat that told Aang and Katara that they would be given a whole new responsibility.

They wondered to themselves: were they ready for this? How could they be? It wasn't as though their lives were strictly normal. Aang couldn't help but question his ability to step up to this, this responsibility of all responsibilities, and Katara wasn't any more confident in her own, while the heartbeat continued on, thrumming, thrumming…

The worry became a dread. There was no way that they could deal with this. They were still too young, it felt like. This seemed almost too big to handle.

Yes, it was a dread…but it was also a hope. Because, as frightened as they were, they both knew that, deep down, they wanted this. Some days, they would find themselves imagining, and think, if only for a moment, that perhaps they could do it, after all…

And so it was that Aang stood with the most precious gift he had ever received in his arms, sleeping, one tiny hand closed absently over her father's finger. Even now, he was terrified, but in a strange way, he welcomed the terror, because he didn't think he could ever feel so exhilarated, so happy, so at peace. Because right now, everything seemed to have lined up, and this was exactly, _exactly_ what he was supposed to be.

He sat on the bed next to his wife, and Katara took the child back into her arms, and they welcomed their daughter to the world.

And for that one, small moment, three heartbeats spoke more words than any language could.


	4. Butterflies

**Prompt:** Butterflies**  
Rating:** K  
**Summary:** In a flash of color, something enters...  
**A/N:** Extremely late. Unfashionably late. CRAZY LATE. (I never change, apparently. XD) Also, a cat doesn't matter that you're typing, HE WANTS ATTENTION NOW.

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The first butterfly Katara ever saw was red.

The color had leaped (_flashed_) out at her, instantly nabbing her attention. Even years later, she could recall the bold scarlet of the wings, interrupted by the flashes of gold and white, and the black of the other sides as it fluttered through the air. It had danced past her eyes, close enough to touch, and winged its way towards Aang.

Eyes caught by the brightness against the stark backdrop of winter, Aang had turned and, seeing the fiery-colored creature, his eyes had lit up (_the way only Aang's ever could_) and the ear-to-ear grin sparked into existence. He'd drawn it in with airbending, and allowed it to alight onto his finger, marveling at the sight of the insect out of season. Katara had watched, fondly, feeling an oddly strong sense of peace from the scene, and felt something new.

She would later on dismiss it as motherly, and it was (_just a little_); but something else had been present, unannounced and not really obvious, but definitely there. It had felt so natural that it took her some time to become aware of its existence: The feeling that had crept in as she'd gazed so fondly at her best friend, playing with the bright butterfly and eyes so full of joy. It would be a few months yet before the feeling became pronounced enough to earn a name.

It was- new, different (_better?_) from Jet, quietly growing and warming and making her want to be closer to him, yet further away as well. Sometimes he'd turn to give her his smile, or perhaps just say a certain thing (_tiny, normal things_) and that red red butterfly would come to life in her stomach and make it a little harder to breathe, the flaming wings raising the temperature and quickening her heartbeat. As time went on and her feelings for the airbender intensified, the fluttering became for common and maddeningly intense, almost to the point where she wasn't sure she could hide it from him anymore…

How she had hated that butterfly towards the end of the war: Hated and loved it.

When she divulged this to Aang, years and years later (_had it really been that long?_) he smiled, nuzzling his face into her hair, and admitted,

_Yeah; I still feel it, too._


End file.
